Sentimental Garbage

About this podcast

Sick of feeling guilty about the books you should be reading, but aren’t? Annoyed that the books you read don’t seem to “count” as literature? Join author and journalist Caroline O’Donoghue as she discovers the chick-lit classics her guests were raised on, from schmaltzy romances to family comedies to bodice-ripping dramas. We talk to authors, fans and cultural critics about what makes chick-lit tick, and investigate why it’s so often overlooked.

Sentimental Garbage

Episodes

2021
Sentimental in the City 3: Sex and the City, Season 3
Take your seats, turn off your phones, it's time to settle in for the National Theatre's presentation of THE MCDOUGALLS ARE COMING FOR SUPPER and there will be no intermission. This week we discuss everyone's favourite members of the Scottish-American aristocracy, Aidan and the affair, and the general neglect of dogs in this season. We also discuss how and why this is Sex and the City's most problematic season – did the writers take their own status as being the Big Sex Show for granted? We rhapsodise about Bill Kelly the piss politician and the great Power Lad divide between Caroline and Dolly. Dolly Alderton is the author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love Caroline O'Donoghue is the author of Promising Young Women, Scenes of a Graphic Nature and the forthcoming All Our Hidden Gifts This podcast was edited by Caroline O'Donoghue and mixed by Hannah Varrall. Artwork by Gavin Day and music by Harry Harris See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
March 4, 2021
110 min
Sentimental in the City 2: Sex and the City, Season Two
It's season two and the hair is great, the clothes are even better, and Mr Big is fundamentally depressing. We argue that season two of Sex and the City is Miranda's Season as twenty episodes of sexual humiliation threatens to break her, until she's given the greatest meet-cute in the show's history. We profess our love for Steve Brady, investigate class in Britain as well as in the show, and dissect the meaning of the gold corduroy suit. We discuss why, exactly, the girls are still single and discuss the vagaries of Charlotte York's personality. Also, don't invite someone to your house unless you have food in it. Dolly Alderton is the author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love Caroline O'Donoghue is the author of Promising Young Women, Scenes of a Graphic Nature, and the forthcoming All Our Hidden Gifts Harry Harris did the music and Gavin Day (Steve Brady) did the artwork. This podcast was produced and edited by Caroline O'Donoghue and mixed by Hannah Varral See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
February 25, 2021
118 min
Sentimental in the City 1: Sex & The City, Season One
This week, we're kicking off our Sex and the City mini-series with our discussion of the character arcs and themes (take a drink) of season one. After a round dismissal of the pilot episode (abso-f*cking-who-cares?) we get right into the meat of The Valley of 20-Something Guys, where we re-enact the infamous taxi scene that landed the tone of the whole series, dissect the cultural practice of Carrie-bashing, and generally watch as a previously sane New York party girl loses her goddamn mind for the most boring man in the tri-state area. We round off the chat with Man of the Season (he misses the touch of a woman), Outfit of the Season (or lack thereof) and the Carrie Clanger of the Season (the prayer book drop heard around the world). Dolly Alderton is the author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love Caroline O'Donoghue is the author of Promising Young Women, Scenes of a Graphic Nature, and the forthcoming All Our Hidden Gifts See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
February 18, 2021
102 min
Introducing: Sentimental in the City, with Dolly Alderton
It's the first ever Sentimental Garbage mini-series: a big basket of episodes about Sex and the City! In this mini-series, author Dolly Alderton joins me as we spend each episode discussing every season of the TV show Sex and the City for the great American novel it truly is. This is not an episode by episode analysis but a look at each season as an individual piece of work, where we discuss the themes, character journeys and lasting messages of it. We examine the big thesis topics such as: The Corsage and Saddlebag Tragedy of Series Three, The Absence of Strap-ons in Sex and The City, and Big’s Weekend Shirts: Wide-fitting sleeves to house an absent soul. Crucially: we don't know the most about Sex and the City, we just feel the most about Sex and the City. Pour yourself a cocktail and ask yourself some huge questions about the McDougall family trust, and we’ll see you every Thursday for the next six weeks! (Plus maybe again for the movies, who knows) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
February 15, 2021
2 min
Unforgivable Love with Sareeta Domingo
Sophfronia Scott re-imagination of Dangerous Liaisons set in the Harlem Renaissance is sexy, surprising and so entertaining that we're willing to forgive the baseball references. Author of IF I DON'T HAVE YOU Sareeta Domingo talks us through her love for a book that, despite only coming out in 2017, has already earned a cult classic status. Be prepared for moustache-twirling, hand-rubbing, god-fearing, and hot hot jazz. Unforgivable Love is a retelling of Dangerous Liaisons set in post-war Harlem among an elite set of the wealthy African American upper classes. Among them we have Mae Marveaux, a beautiful conniving young widow whose desperate need to be loved is offset by her need to destroy other people’s lives. She is obsessed with her similarly conniving friend, Val Jackson, and the two of them decide to prey on Elizabeth Townsend, a devout married Christian, and Cecily, an innocent young virgin who has been brought from North Carolina for an arranged marriage to one of Mae’s former lovers. Over a single summer, Cecily is deflowered, Elizabeth falls for Val, and almost everyone is either pregnant or dead. Find Sareeta Domingo here: https://twitter.com/SareetaDomingo and anywhere you buy books! Find Caroline O'Donoghue here: https://twitter.com/Czaroline and in those same places that you buy books! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
January 28, 2021
66 min
Evening Class with Sarah Maria Griffin
Ciao bella! It's our second Maeve Binchy-cast of the season, with returning guest Sarah Maria Griffin. It’s the dawn of the Celtic Tiger in early nineties Ireland, and Nora O’Donoghue, or Signora, is returning home after over 20 years away. Having spent her youth in Sicily, in love with a married man, she has returned with no money, no friends and no prospects. She begins teaching italian at Mountainview school, where the beleaguered Aidan Dunne has just been passed over for the job of principal in favour of the womanising Tony O’Brien. Tony, meanwhile, is in love with Aidan’s adult daughter. The book follows every student in the evening class, subtly changing each of their destinies, and culminating with a trip to Italy at the end of the book. Sarah Maria Griffin is an award winning novelist and zine maker, follower her at @griffski Caroline O'Donoghue is a novelist, her latest novel, Scenes of a Graphic Nature, is out now. All Our Hidden Gifts is available for pre-order See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
January 21, 2021
81 min
Le Divorce with Fiona Zublin
Get your Kelly bag and your load-bearing beams ready, this week we're talking about Diane Johnson's Le Divorce with real-life American Girl in Paris, Fiona Zublin! Isabel Walker is a young, bored film school graduate who has decamped to Paris to help her older sister Roxy, with her second pregnancy. Upon her arrival she discovers that Roxy has just been left by her French husband, Charles-Henri for another woman. As Roxy tries to negotiate French divorce courts and her estranged husbands family, Isabel slowly ingratiates herself into Paris life, becoming the mistress to Isabel’s 70 year old uncle-in-law, Edgar. When a valuable painting belonging to the Walker family gets implicated in the divorce, both families are forced to come together to find a way out. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
January 14, 2021
66 min
2020
The Children's Books Christmas Special Spectacular!
Merry Christmas everyone! Usually this time of year, you’d be in your childhood bedroom, re-reading the books that got you through primary school. This year, a lot of us can’t go home this Christmas, but there’s still every reason to revisit the books that made life better when you were nine. It might even make life better now? Caroline and occasional co-host Ella Risbridger talk about childhood reading habits, magazines, tough but beautiful Christmases, and why the Secret Garden is the greatest love triangle of all time. We mention: Tom's Midnight Garden Charmed Life Miss Happiness & Miss Flower The Secret Garden Back Home the "My Story" books The Illustrated Mum The Suitcase Kid The Lottie Project Going Solo Danny The Champion of The World & more! Caroline and Ella both have books for younger people coming out next year! Pick up The Secret Detectives by Ella Risbridger and All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue. See you in 2021! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
December 24, 2020
64 min
The Fifteen Streets by Catherine Cookson with Milly Johnson
Best-selling romance novelist and Yorkshire lass Milly Johnson talks to us about her biggest writing inspiration, Catherine Cookson. If you haven't read Cookson's books, you've almost certainly seen one of her many, maaaaaaany costume dramas that have been adapted for TV, probably while sick with chicken box circa 1998. We discuss Cookson's first novel, The Fifteen Streets, which tells the story of an Irish Catholic family struggling in the slums of Newcastle. We talk religion, poverty, family, starting your writing career after 40 and mysterious boating accidents See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
December 17, 2020
57 min
Daisy Jones & The Six with Tom McInnes
It's the best-selling fictional oral history about your favourite 70s rock band that never existed! This week, Caroline and writer/musician Tom McInnes deconstruct last year's big sun lounger surprise hit, Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. We talk about the advantages and shortcomings of the unusual format, the competing narratives of the book, the difference between literary twists and stunts. We start out a little bit cynical but ultimately, we really liked it! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
December 10, 2020
62 min
The Meaning of Mariah Carey with Okechukwu Nzelu
Don't even act like you don't know her. This week we talk about the diva of all divas, Mariah Carey with author of The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney, Okechukwu Nzelu. Stay tuned for Tommy Mottola, that TRL appearance, and Mariah's surprisingly incisive takes on mental illness and cycles of abuse. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
December 3, 2020
71 min
Lucky by Jackie Collins with Jessie Burton
We're back after a long break with our first Jackie Collins episode, with the one and only Jessie Burton! Jessie's debut novel The Miniaturist became a global bestseller and has since been followed up with the highly feted The Muse and The Confession, along with The Restless Girls, a novel for children. Here she talks about Jackie Collins as the patron saint of Authors Who Like Nice Things, and we talk about Jackie the product versus Jackie the person. We also discuss female authors and self awareness, Lucky Santangelo as a James Bond for women, satire, sex, parenting and much more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
November 26, 2020
73 min
Scenes of a Graphic Nature by Caroline O'Donoghue (me!!!)
Scenes of a Graphic Nature has been out for over a month, so Caroline and Ella are talking about it! We say this is an 'all spoiler' edition, but in practice there are actually very few spoilers and a lot of discussion of grief, working together, how it feels when a book comes out, how perceptions of Ireland have changed in less than a decade, the use of music in the novel, friendship and porn. Buy the book! https://www.waterstones.com/book/9780349009940 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WN4QNYN/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
September 27, 2020
75 min
Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
This week we're talking about food, friendship and the cult favourite of Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin. Brian Eno once said that everyone who bought The Velvet Underground's first record went on to form a band, and the same can be said of Home Cooking and people who went on to write cookbooks. We talk about recipe writing, the godlike power of food writers, our dowdy twenties, tiny flats, and the uselessness of describing someone as "the new Nora Ephron". Caroline O'Donoghue has two books out, the most recent of which is Scenes of a Graphic Nature and is available in all book shops. Ella Risbridger is the author of Midnight Chicken and Set Me On Fire, as well as a forthcoming children's fiction series The Secret Detectives. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
August 6, 2020
68 min
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
CONTENT WARNING: frequent, graphic mentions of suicide We're back after a short break with more Covid-appropriate reading material, and what's more pandemic-y than The Virgin Suicides, a book where everyone dies and no one leaves their house. We talk about bad faith readings, Lolita, Sylvia Plath, the 'we' voice, suburbia, and Jeffrey's talent for smells. Caroline O'Donoghue has two books out, the most recent of which is Scenes of a Graphic Nature and is available in all book shops from August 6th Ella Risbridger is the author of Midnight Chicken and Set Me On Fire, as well as a forthcoming children's fiction series The Secret Detectives See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
July 30, 2020
75 min
Scenes of a Graphic Nature is out on ebook and audio!
My second book is out on audio and ebook today, here's me talking about it and doing a reading! Scenes of a Graphic Nature by Caroline O'Donoghue https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WN4QNYN/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1 Audio narration by Esther O'Moore Donohoe https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Scenes-of-a-Graphic-Nature-Audiobook/1004001509?qid=1592504228&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=2B3Z57HX8WY3E9XPZPXW See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
June 18, 2020
18 min
Reading Recommendations
No new episode this week, but here are some fiction recommendations that you might be interested in given the current political climate: Heads Of The Coloured People - Nafissa Thompson-Spires Kindred - Octavia E Butler Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison Nudibranch - Irenosen Okojie Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid Property - Valerie Martin The Wedding Date - Jasmine Guillory Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo Donate to UK Black Lives Matter: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ukblm-fund Exist Loudly Fund to Support Queer Black YP: https://www.gofundme.com/f/exist-loudly-fund-to-support-queer-black-yp SARI Stand Against Racism and Inequality https://www.sariweb.org.uk/who-we-are/donate/ Girl Guiding: https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
June 5, 2020
13 min
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
This week we're talking about 1989's smash-hit debut The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. We talk debut novels, immigration literature, why so many women find Amy Tan in their teens, mothers and their daughters, food and how it travels, and why we're still obsessed with Waverly Jong. Lillian Li's "The Love Hate Joy Luck Club” - https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2015/05/the-love-hate-joy-luck-club/ Sentimental Garbage is produced and edited by Caroline O'Donoghue, mixed by Hannah Varrall and hosted by Acast. You can find Caroline's books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caroline-ODonoghue/e/B07CR7SFJM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1588717449&sr=1-1 You can find Ella Risbridger's books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ella-Risbridger/e/B07KR8NDY8?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1588717479&sr=1-1 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
May 22, 2020
86 min
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
This week on the Corona Cast, Caroline and Ella discuss the ultimate smart lady holiday book (she's going to Split) American Wife! American Wife is a 2009 novel inspired by the life of Laura Bush, former First Lady and wife of George Bush junior. Here, we know her as Alice Blackwell. Beginning in the mid-west in the 1950s, we follow Alice from her quiet childhood to the car accident in her teens that killed her first crush and changed her life forever. After becoming a school librarian, she meets Charlie Blackwell at the barbecue of some mutual friends and begins a whirlwind romance that leads to a long marriage, and eventually, the White House. Sentimental Garbage is produced and edited by Caroline O'Donoghue, mixed by Hannah Varrall and hosted by Acast. You can find Caroline's books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caroline-ODonoghue/e/B07CR7SFJM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1588717449&sr=1-1 You can find Ella Risbridger's books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ella-Risbridger/e/B07KR8NDY8?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1588717479&sr=1-1 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
May 6, 2020
66 min
Valley of the Dolls with Ella Risbridger
CONTENT WARNING: rape, fat shaming, homophobia, literally all possible triggers a person could have. This week it's another special edition of Sentimental Garbage, where we talk about the novels that are getting us through the corona virus! Today we’re talking about VALLEY OF THE DOLLS by Jacqueline Susann When twenty year-old Anne Welles moves from New England to New York in the summer of 1945, she’s pretty enough to be a model but settles for being a secretary at a theatrical agency. Here she meets a host of showbiz characters, including Neely, a vaudevillian teenager; Jennifer North, a starlet fresh from a marriage to an Italian prince; Helen Lawson, an ageing broadway star and Lyon Burke, a wannabe writer who she falls in love with. Over twenty years, the novel covers their rise and fall through show business, as each woman battles with age, men, and their mutual pill addictions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
April 29, 2020
76 min

Sentimental Garbage

About this podcast

Categories

About this podcast

Categories

Sentimental Garbage

Episodes

Sentimental in the City 3: Sex and the City, Season 3

Sentimental in the City 2: Sex and the City, Season Two

Sentimental in the City 1: Sex & The City, Season One

Introducing: Sentimental in the City, with Dolly Alderton

Unforgivable Love with Sareeta Domingo

Evening Class with Sarah Maria Griffin

Le Divorce with Fiona Zublin

The Children's Books Christmas Special Spectacular!

The Fifteen Streets by Catherine Cookson with Milly Johnson

Daisy Jones & The Six with Tom McInnes

The Meaning of Mariah Carey with Okechukwu Nzelu

Lucky by Jackie Collins with Jessie Burton

Scenes of a Graphic Nature by Caroline O'Donoghue (me!!!)

Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Scenes of a Graphic Nature is out on ebook and audio!

Reading Recommendations

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

Valley of the Dolls with Ella Risbridger